# The Ditmarsch Tale of Wonders explained — Household Tales > Chapter companion for Household Tales by Jacob Grimm. ## What happens A whimsical and absurd collection of impossible events and paradoxical occurrences, presented as a tale of wonders from Ditmarsch. ## Key lines > I saw two roasted fowls flying; they flew quickly and had their breasts turned to heaven and their backs to hell I witnessed two cooked chickens flying swiftly, oriented with their chests toward heaven and their backs toward hell. _An impossible image of roasted fowls flying in an inverted orientation._ > and an anvil and a millstone swam across the Rhine prettily, slowly, and gently A heavy anvil and a millstone crossed the Rhine River in a graceful, slow, and gentle manner. _Describes heavy objects swimming, defying natural laws._ > and a frog sat on the ice at Whitsuntide and ate a ploughshare During the Pentecost season, a frog sat on ice and consumed a metal plow blade. _A frog performing an impossible act in an unlikely season._ > Three fellows who wanted to catch a hare, went on crutches and stilts; one of them was deaf, the second blind, the third dumb, and the fourth could not stir a step. Four men set out to catch a hare using crutches and stilts, but one was deaf, one blind, one mute, and the fourth unable to move. _A paradoxical hunting party with contradictory disabilities._ > First, the blind man saw the hare running across the field, the dumb one called to the lame one, and the lame one seized it by the neck. The blind man spotted the hare, the mute shouted to the lame man, and the lame man caught it by the neck. _Each character performs an action impossible given their stated disability._ > There were certain men who wished to sail on dry land, and they set their sails in the wind, and sailed away over great fields. Some men desired to sail on land, so they raised their sails and traveled across vast fields. _An absurd image of sailing across fields instead of water._ > Then they sailed over a high mountain, and there they were miserably drowned. They sailed over a tall mountain and drowned there in a miserable fashion. _Drowning on a mountain top, mixing elements of sea and land._ > A crab was chasing a hare which was running away at full speed, and high up on the roof lay a cow which had climbed up there. A crab pursued a hare fleeing at top speed, while a cow lay on a roof after having climbed up. _Animals behaving in impossible ways: a fast crab and a climbing cow._ > In that country the flies are as big as the goats are here. In that land, flies are the size of the goats found here. _Exaggerated scale of insects compared to familiar animals._ > Open the window, that the lies may fly out. Open the window so that the falsehoods can escape. _A concluding remark acknowledging the tall tales just told._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se/chapters/the-ditmarsch-tale-of-wonders - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se/chapters